tonight, true colors! singer, songwriter, activists, and 80s icon. cyndi lauper made a surprise appearance in the white house briefing room today, to thank president biden and congress for passing the respect for marriage act. but she didn't stop there. she joined over those speakers and performers to mark the occasion at the bill signing ceremony on the south lawn. here is some of her moving, true colors performance. to take us off the air tonight. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> power tell the people! >> and on that beautiful note,

i wish you straight dreams and a good night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of msnbc news, thanks for staying up late. i'll see you at the end of tomorrow! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ these are photos of a city bus late last night in brazil's capital city of brasilia. the bus was on fire and it is teetering on edge of a highway overpass. nbc news has not independently confirmed this, local news outlet say that supporters of outgoing president bolsonaro attempted to put up us over the highway last night before i got stuck. last night bolsonaro supporters set fire to car after car and caused all sorts of general havoc in the capital city. but the main focus of last night's violence was the attempt to storm brazil's

federal police headquarters. the thing that brought these supporters out under the street last night was a temporary arrest of a man whose results supreme court said so expressly to prevent the certification of election. the violence yesterday came after the candidate who beat bolsonaro, president elect louis has to silva, known as lula, after he had his eye looked oral when officially certified. it also came after outgoing president bolsonaro broke his postelection silence last week, telling his supporters quote, who decides where i go are you. who decides which where the armed forces go are you. it is been more than a month since the brazilian presidential election and bolsonaro still has not conceded. his followers have called for military intervention, a coup

to bar lula from office and keep their leader in power. so bolsonaro is alluding to the armed forces here is a terrifying process prospect. there are a lot of comparisons we can draw from that to our own politics at home, the one i want to focus on tonight is this one. the fuel at the core of this anti-democratic movement is a conspiracy theory. the conspiracy theory that the election was rigged, that it was stolen. some bolsonaro supporters are claiming online that last night 's violence was a false flag opposition by leftist lula supporters. of course there is no evidence of fraud and there's no evidence of a quote unquote false flag operation. these conspiracy theories have infected brazilian politics, from civilians all the way up to powerful elected officials. and this is not just unique to brazil. just last week, german special forces carried out a country wide raid, hitting 150 different homes and arresting 25 alleged members of a coup plot. the plot as laid out by german prosecutors was allegedly to

storm the german capital, then to arrest lawmakers, execute the chancellor and install a descendant of german prewar nobility, a literal german princes new head of state. according to german news outlet there spiegel, the group appears to have model themselves after the far-right revolutionaries in the united states. they're spiegel describes them as a motley group of politically radicalized germany 's, who had a weakness for conspiracy theories and reject the legitimacy of postwar germany. among those conspiracy theories? was qanon. what spiegel underlines it's perhaps the most concerning part of all this is that a surprising amount of people involved in the plot, people who believe in these widely conspiracy theories, is that a lot of them are from the upper echelons of german society. a judge who had been a former member of parliament was among the members of the military among them, former members of

germany's special forces. these conspiracy theories convinced powerful and important people. which brings me back to us here in the united states. in advance of the january six committee's final report which we expect we tomorrow, talking points started publishing many of the text that former trump chief of staff mark meadows received from 34 republican lawmakers in a run up to the january 6th attack on the capital. and d. c. news is not independently confirmed those are viewed those texts, maybe some context missed from some of them, but we're talking about the talking points that have been published so far is alarming. we've known for a long time that a select number of officials, like congresswoman marjorie taylor greene, really had seemed ti have of drank the stop the steal kool-aid. she advocated for martial law to overturn the results of the 2020 law. what tps reporting makes clear

is that marjorie taylor claimed was less of an outlier than we thought. lots of republican elected officials and people in positions of power we're calling for drastic measures to overturn the election and citing conspiracy theories as their reason to do so. 34 republican lawmakers were texting mark meadows things like youtube videos saying identities of 50 million american citizens were stolen by ukraine and used for voting in the 2020 election is part of 100 dollar billion plot involving illegal emigrants blackmail and romanian officials. that's really something that happened. not the conspiracy theory part. the part that 30 among the 34 republican lawmakers who were texting mark meadows some of them believe that. or they were saying things like that conspiracy theory that italian defense contractors somehow use satellites to alter the election results. the chair of the house freedom

caucus, scott perry, was one of the people pushing a particular theory. tp m reports that perry was fixated on that italy gate conspiracy theory. he bombarded meadows, the chief of staff with texts about it saying he was setting up a cyber team that would seize voting machines around the country and put them under lock and key. perry was far from alone. tpm latest piece tonight reports that mark meadows were getting similar text about the italy gate conspiracy from a republican state senator in georgia. these were elected members of the u.s. government who were reelected last month and appear to actually believe this stuff. joining us now is josh kaminsky, he's an investigative reporter for talking points memo. josh is part of the tpm team that a obtain the drove of mark meadows messages, and was reporting on the way that he was reporting with members to overturn the results of the election results. josh is good to see. thanks for being with yours tonight. so is this why mark meadows fought congress's subpoena?

these are giant just all of the emails, either once he chose to release. what can you tell us about that selection? >> i think most my view the most shocking view, the italy gate conspiracy is the fact that these wild can completely baseless theories were being spread of the highest levels of the american government. this is the good stuff. in a sense, this is what meadows edited and was willing to let the committee have access to. and i think that in itself tells you that there are at their there are much more damaging. we also have some evidence in the text themselves, scott perry who you just mentioned he is constantly referencing to the evidence in the encrypted messaging app. we also collected some evidence to suggest irregular estimates messages that were handed over to congress even that is not the complete record of everything that was sent. there's much more out there as far as we understand, what was given to the committee was only partial record of the fall that exists out there somewhere. >> what you have seen that this is not a complete response from

meadows or scott perry or the other republican lawmakers, can you describe the nature of the correspondence when these insane, is no really no other word to describe, with these insane conspiracy theories about 2020 election fraud are floated to the white house chief of staff? he doesn't appear to be shooting them down. >> not at all. he's receptive and that's what's so fascinating about it in a sense. i think i would say that there's a progression. in the days and weeks after the election itself, there's a lot of vague supposition about what might have happened. we see terry talking about getting the nsa involved or the cia involved. her has this vague sense that maybe the intelligence community has something to do with it. who knows if he believes that sincerely or the something is projecting forward. but as time goes on, these theories although they are completely baseless get more more specific. it's not just there's a cia connection, it's italy and an italian defense contractor made military grade satellites to

zap votes away. it's completely unhinged, completely divorced from reality. as time goes on by the time january six comes around, there's all these people have developed elaborate narratives what happened why trump lost. everything from him getting less votes for then biden of course. [laughter] it's all fantasy the way it develops. >> it makes the theory about dominion voting machines look tame by comparison. do you have a sense of some of the stuff was on youtube, some of it appears to have been concocted out of thin air. is there a source that you see these lawmakers going back to by way of a citation? and i guess i would also ask, is it your sense that meadows, to we have any indication that meadows was taking this to the president? was this being circulated in the upper echelons of the oval office? >> your first question, i think they can say that they cast a wide net, in terms of what are

they taking it in. i think that's a less terrible way of putting it. it seems that anything that would throw off their worldview, they seem to have run with. we have paul gosar for example citing an article from a website some which will be told me. you have revolver news, a far right news outlet, leading a source of some of these people. breitbart. it's all over the spectrum. random postings online. italy gate in particular came from this random youtuber, brandon johnson, and it just kind of filtered his way into all these republican officials and got its way to mark meadows. as to whether or not they were making it to trump, the evidence suggests that yes. there's limited evidence in the tax themselves about whether the information got to trump, but we've heard from january six committee that trump was given all this information. that he was bringing it up with doj officials who would shoot it down. again, italy gate, i think people like it because it's the

craziest one, and that one also, is not clear if trump heard about. some of the people who pushed it said they brought it to him, but that one is a little less clear. >> the dominion voting machine was taken seriously enough that now there is a defamation suit that is making its way through court. i know it's impossible to know what was in the hearts and minds of these lawmakers but i think it's important important to stress that a, these are lawmakers, these are not just random people on the internet trying to get to mark meadows ears. some of them have been reelected and will be serving in congress. but also, when you read them least on their face, this doesn't look like a group of people grasping for straws. there is a true believer element to all of this. i can't necessarily say the same for mark meadows who is obviously a political operative and working with a specific and, working towards a specific and. did you get a sense in reading all this that there is the passion, develop tree of real conversion to this type of paranoid conspiratorial -- >> i think that's a really good word, and i would draw your

attention to how these people reacted to january 6th. there was only a brief window when any of them thought that it was trump supporters who did it. what they thought it was antifa, and then as we flip of, that wasn't the case, the thought of the fbi, they call it a fed-surrection. they thought of the cia. it doesn't really matter what they believe in any given moment. what matters is that it's convenient. what matters it that it doesn't fit that it was trump supporters who are responsible for it. so when you say, zealotry would draw a line so that sent a blind belief in conspiracy when it's convenient, a specific claims around the election. and this specific claims not launch by members of congress for state representatives, but by trump's legal team, all of whom knew better. all of these lawyers, went to defense law schools, they knew what they were arguing, they

knew what they were bringing to court and they had to have known that the vast majority of the claims were bunk. >> yes. >> so i would draw the same conclusion from different players here. >> these law some of the lawmakers are behaving in a different way as opposed to john eastman who behaved in ways it to concoct -- >> >> investigate reporter for tea and, great reporting. >> thanks for having me. >> now i want to bring into the conversation colin clark is the director of research at the soufan center. he covers the nexus between far-right extremism and disinformation. mr. clark, thank you for joining me. does it surprise you that this type of conspiratorial world view has affected a group of people who have access to security briefings. they have insider information if you will as members of

congress. does the fact that they have bought into something so completely fabricated surprise you? >> yes, in some ways yes. i think back to the early days following january 6th. it was shocking, appalling a bit hard to believe what we were seeing unfold before our eyes. as we've had the benefit of hindsight, so much of this is deliberately. including the disinformation conspiracies that were spread. the difference between misinformation and disinformation, misinformation is passed on a lot unknowingly, disinformation is a deliberate decision to lie, to deceive, to manipulate, that's what many of these individuals. did >> you talk about the

intersection between violent extremism and this type of conspiratorial paranoid worldview? >> we talk about this concept of lone wolf and lone actors. really that's a bit of a misnomer because there's a broader far-right ecosystem that many of these individuals emerged from. a gazed with the a ideas, thing gauge with the conspiracies, like the great replacement theory. while you have lawmakers on capitol hill peddling these conspiracies, you have real people on the ground, individuals, small cells, organizations like the oath keepers and others that are

marinating in this propaganda, in these lies and deception and are actually going out to connect commit acts of real world violence. that's the problem. especially when lawmakers, the people above the fray or never held accountable. so there's a sense of impunity. >> and the people who are the actual violent actors, the people who are a grassroots part of it, it seems to have spread. you talk about intersectionality, usually it is a good thing in terms of common cause. but here in terms of extremism and paranoia and conspiracy theory mongrel, it seems like the tenth of people included in that worldview has grown bigger in recent years. can you talk a little bit more about that? >> sadly, that is accurate. we see a very broad tent that includes, garden variety of races. what the government would say rim the actors, racially and ethnically motivated motivated extremists. as well as anti government extremists, qanon, extremists, anti-vaxxers, it's kind of a come one come all its like reddit came to real life and attempted to storm the capital. you've seen images and videos very painful to remind us of the day when a large group of american citizens sought to overturn a free and fair election. they were egged on and encouraged on by politicians in our own government. it's really shameful. >> people who are being reelected talking explicitly about their belief in the big lie. how is it spread? we know of course about social media, but it seems more insidious than just something

information available verbally. can you talk about the way this stuff has become mainstream and in some ways palatable to a wider swath of the american electorate? >> yes, so it has been mainstream. we color mainstream extremism, it's done both virtually and in the physical world. virtually it's done through rapid, continuous and repetitive disinformation campaigns. which by the way is the same playbook as the russians use. but there's been a kind of mass radicalization that we've seen. we've seen a breakdown of the social contract which is in many ways has allowed qanon and

other similar conspiracies to spread. but what used to be a cycle where it took an individual maybe years to radicalize and move forward to an act of violence we're not seeing that timeline significantly compressed. radicalization's taking the place over the course of months. as researchers, that something we are struggling to understand, to pick apart the different drivers. personally, i hypothesize that the pandemic had quite a lot to do with this, because people were really, their normal patterns of life disrupted. and now as we try to emerge from the pandemic, we still see some of the same patterns emerging and dovetailing with the violent rhetoric, which is troubling for those of us watching the space. >> can you clarify something for me that i finally don't understand? this extremist worldview believes in large part in acceleration, which is hastening chaos and society and they events to basically overthrow the government. it leaves it all has to fall apart before it can be built back up. how is it that people in government are fundamentally supporting that theory by basically giving voice, giving

oxygen to that kind of paranoia and conspiracy and poison? how do you square that circle? >> it's very difficult to grapple with that right, because these things are at odds with each other. they don't seem to mind the discrepancy and the fact that there is quite a bit of hypocrisy here. i don't have that's in aid to politicians broadly or it's more of a kind of passing fat. but certainly we've seen that in the extremist world as well where, we have things called -- people taking bits from the left and the right and all these different pieces holding them together not really seeming to mind that some of these ideologies or world the eagles are totally opposed to

each other. it's much the same as the same with the acceleration less. toppling the system is almost an extreme left you, from the anarchists. so the extreme left in the extreme right have more in common in the care to admit. and everyone who suffers is everyone else in the middle. >> someone should give a memo to mark meadows that they are coming for you actually in the end. that's what this is all about. colin clark, senior research fellow at the susana fellow. thanks for taking time for me tonight colin. >> thanks for having me. >> coming up. president biden today signed a respect for marriage act into a white house ceremony. did we finally get here? we will talk to one of the key players in this years long battle for civil rights. maura healey isthe first openly gay person elected governor of massachusetts who also led the first successful state challenge to push for same-sex marriage rights. she joins me next.

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subtlety was a new form of marriage. should gay couples be allowed to marry, receive all the benefits from security vantage -- house breaks that straight couples do. in the united states senate tonight, that answer was a resounding no. >> invoking the bible, and ancient history. senators argued that allowing gays to marry would not only threaten the institution of marriage, but also civilization as we know it. >> to insist that male male or

female female relationships must have the same status as the marriage relationship is more than unwise, it is painfully absurd. >> that was nbc nightly news. on the day that the defense of marriage act passed in the senate in 1996. the defense of marriage act, known as doma, -- and allowed states to refuse to recognize any safe sex marriage granted by another state. ever since, it has been as shameful stain on our nations past equality. but in 1996, and a broad such bipartisan support, 89 senators voted in favor, including than joe biden. and it was signed into law by democrat bill clinton. much of what it is about the waited in 2013, when the supreme court struck down part of the law, but it only applied to 13 states. then in 2015, supreme court granted same-sex couples the

constitutional right to marry across the nation. but as you may recall, that could be in jeopardy after justice clarence thomas indicated in the dobbs decision, that he would consider rolling back the clock on marriage equality. which is how we got to this historic moment today, with the president of the united states. for the first time in the u.s. history, signing into federal law to protect the marriage rights of same-sex couples. >> today, i find the respect for marriage act into law. in this moment, it is aligned with those who agree with justice. he so many of you put your relationships on the line, your jobs on the line, your lives on the line. to fight for a law i'm about to sign. for many in the entire nation, thank, you thank, you, thank you.

>> the laws, signed by biden today, helps protect same-sex an interracial marriage. but it also goes one step further. by the feeling the defense for marriage act. taking the discriminatory law of the books and tossing it into the ash heap of history. back in 2012, massachusetts was the first state to successfully challenge it in court. one of the senators who brought that case was the massachusetts assistant general attorney at the time. she became the states first openly gay attorney general. and she was elected to the states openly gay governor. one of two openly lesbian a lax. governor elect healy, first of all. congratulations. how are you feeling today? >> it is great to be with you alex, and i am so happy, today represents so much for our

state, our state really through the work of so many brave same-sex couples that came forward in the goodrich case. it was a state that established -- it's the first in the world. and then the state that successfully challenged oma. so to see that couple today, alex, from northampton, massachusetts, from so many. among them. the champion this cause for so long, to see them today. to see the president sinus. and d.c. also alex. a significant move by congress. remember this is a bipartisan rejection of threats to freedoms and protections that really are in place as a result of the obergefell decision. it is a really important day and i'm just so happy. >> as you should be. i do want to talk a little bit about who voted for and who voted against this. 1996, the bipartisan support to deny same-sex marriage, same sex couples the right to

marriage was bipartisan. that was 32 democrats and 52 republicans voted for drama. cut to today when we are -- enshrining the right to gave marriage. the only people who voted against that were republicans. 37 of them. now it is bipartisan, but the fact is that the majority of the republican caucus voted against this in the upper chamber. what do you think accounts for that and is that number surprise you? >> sadly it doesn't given the state of politics, but i think it's important that this was by partisan and the fact that most americans support people living their lives people just want to be able to live their lives free of discrimination. so i think that is a win. and i think again, seeing congress step up in the face of threats and provide this backstop particularly against a supreme court who signaled so much, in the dobbs decision and more recently in some of its

opinions and commentary, this is real important measure. i can tell you when we filed the doma litigation back in 2009, we were not expected to win that case. so many people including constitutional scholars said we were crazy to file that case, that we had no chance. at the end of the day we were successful i think that's in large part due to the fact that so many couples and families have been willing to live authentically and bravely. people understand that, there are friends, or neighbors, our colleagues, and unfortunately there's just some element of the republican party it is desperately out of touch with the reality in the sensibility of the vast majority of americans. >> i think that point is well taken -- the broad public support here. i think we can't ignore, especially on a day like today, the way in which anti-lgbtq policy and rhetoric has been embraced by the right wing. it has become the source of violent premeditated attacks in terms of far-right wing extremists.

does that concern you? on one level, we seem to be really moving forward as a society. but on another level, in a very scary way, it seems like we are being taken back, a long way back. >> it does. it's a huge concern, alex. and i think it's all the more important that we celebrate days like today. incidentally, that was a biracial couple that was at the white house today. one of our massachusetts same six plaintiffs in the goodridge case. that's important because justice thomas's comments raised questions about interracial marriage. i think that it's important that we call out and we recognize ideologues and others who are looking to weaponize -- weaponize -- our kids, weaponized the lgbtq community. it is really despicable, we've got to be strong about that we certainly will be strong, and i will be strong as a governor about that but we've got to be strong as a nation. because unfortunately, there is this element out they are looking to use misinformation,

disinformation and to weaponize and exploit fears -- and we just need to be strong. i can tell you also, as a member of the lgbtq community, the arc of history is long. a lot of gains, a lot of progress, has been made in just the last 13 years alone. and so we need to recognize that while also standing up and standing strong in the face of these outrageous attacks and efforts and threats to take us backwards. that includes protections for the lgbtq community and population. also, when it comes to abortion, because i think these are things that we are seeing in parallel right now in our country. and we need to be strong standing up against those threats. >> i will say, just as a close, i think it's a very poetic symmetry that you began this fight as -- what is it, and assistant a. g. at the time? and now you are the democratic governor elect of the state of massachusetts, as this is signed into law. it says, in a moment when we don't want to recognize the

darkness at the fringes, it's really important to recognize the winds and moves forward as we get them. massachusetts democratic governor elect maura healey. thanks for your time tonight. >> it's great to be with you, alex. and i will tell you, i would probably not be for it here today if it were not for that case and for what it taught me about the importance of government and law make sure people are in the right places to stand up for people. >> we all thank you for taking it on. coming up, on the same day we learned from a new study that vaccines help to prevent 3 million covid-19 deaths, florida governor ron desantis decided to hold a roundtable with health experts on the alleged harm at the hands of covid vaccines. we will have more on this next. ♪ ♪ this... is a glimpse into the no-too-distant future of lincoln. ♪ ♪ it's what sanctuary could look like... feel like... sound like... even smell like. more on that soon.

♪ ♪ the best part? the prequel is pretty sweet too. ♪ ♪ >> two years ago this week, new

york icu nurse sandra lindsey became one of the first people in the united states receive a covid-19 vaccine. and she did so to a thunderous round of applause. as she sat for that shot, as lindsay said, i hope this marks the beginning to the end of a very painful time in our history. i feel like healing is coming. the first group of people to receive their shot that december were health care workers. at the time, hospitals were overrun and more than 300,000 people had already died from the virus. covid cases and hospitalizations and deaths

were just surging at that point. and then, starting around mid january, one month into the vaccination campaign. covid cases and hospitalizations began to plummet. that was followed by a decline in daily deaths. you can see a steep drop off beginning at the end of january here. and you know what was increasing at the time? daily vaccinations. shots in arms steadily rose through the winter and the spring of 2021. and that is because the vaccines worked. and importantly, they worked as the scientists who developed them predicted, and as the government doctors and public health officials who painstakingly vet them, also predicted, when they voted over and over again to improve it in the first place. over the course of 2021 and 2022, dozens of doctors who sit on the fda's vaccine advisory committee, and the cdc's advisory committee on immunization practices, they met dozens of times to analyze data from pfizer, moderna and other countries using those vaccines to assess the safety

and efficacy of the mrna shots for americans. every single time, both panels voted, often unanimously to recommend the vaccines from public use. they decided that benefits outweigh the risks. it was, effectively, our sounding is for their safety and efficacy. two years later, the cdc says more than 1,080,000 people have died from the covid virus. but today we learned from a new study that more than 3 million deaths were avoided because of vaccines. 3 million people in the united states are alive today because of vaccines. we also now know that many more of those lives saved were likely democrats rather than republicans. in september, the national bureau of economic research published researched looking at hundreds of thousands of deaths in ohio and florida, from 2018 to 2021. the researchers use voting records to determine party affiliations. and they used previous death

records from the states to determine the expected number of deaths in those states every month. they found that the excess death rates -- those deaths above the expected rates. for republicans in florida, and ohio, during the pandemic, that rate was 76% higher than democrats in the same states. 76% higher. and looking at the graph, you can see the gap between republican excess deaths and democratic excess deaths. you can see that gap widened in may of 2021, by which time vaccines are readily available. that gap has stayed present through to 2022, meaning that republicans in those states are not vaccinating. and that at least some of those republicans are dying instead. there is a steep cost to playing politics with public health. it's the highest cost you can pay by most metrics, which is why it is particularly surprising that in florida today, governor ron desantis and his surgeon general, joseph lad the, poet held a 90 minute roundtable discussion on the alleged harms of taking the

covid-19 vaccine. and that is not all. at the end of that meeting, governor desantis added this. >> so, today, i am announcing a petition with the supreme court of florida to empanel a statewide grand jury to investigate any and all wrongdoing in florida with respect to covid-19 vaccines. that will come with legal processes that we will be able to get more information and to bring legal accountability for those who committed misconduct. >> sam just didn't stop there. he almost promised to create a public health integrity committee to, quote, off a critical assessment of recommendations from the cdc and the fda. we will have more on that coming right up next.

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was an increase in excess mortality because covid was there. then you have the mass introduction of mrna vaccines in 2021. and you would think that there would be a reduction in excess mortality. and there just wasn't. >> florida governor ron desantis is correct that there are persistent excess deaths from covid. and they tend to be among republicans in his state and in republican counties nationally. despite widely available mrna

vaccines and variant specific boosters, people are still dying of covid, people who have not gotten the vaccines because they are republican and have ingested a steady diet of partisan propaganda alleging that vaccines are somehow bad or can kill you or can track you or turn you into an alien. so yes, unnecessary covid deaths are still happening. and it is because of partisanship, not bad science, which is why the governor's decision today to inject more partisanship and widely debunked anti-vax theories into the public square is why it's all very deeply troubling. today, governor desantis promised to ask the florida supreme court to empanel a grand jury to investigate crimes committed against floridians related to the covid-19 vaccine. he also promised to create a public health integrity committee to evaluate health guidance from the cdc and fda. joining us now to talk about all this is dr. vin gupta, a critical care pulmonologist in faculty member at the

university of washington's institute for health metrics and evaluation. dr. gupta, thank you for making time for us this evening. given the data that we have now, is partisan affiliation a risk factor for contracting covid at this point? >> alex, good evening. it certainly seems to be. and in terms of getting infected, certainly in terms of ending up in the hospital, alex, what we have seen, and moving forward we are going to see this from working more -- that there is a vaccine that exists -- that prevents severe illness. -- it seems like blue cities have greater prevalence and greater uptick of vaccines at the individual level. those communities are better protected. and as a result, those hospital systems are less likely to undergo any type of stress-like condition. certainly, we are seeing that divide across political lines. >> are our public health

officials communicating this to governors like desantis, who are doing things that actively undermine a drive to vaccinate their state populations? the sort of moral bankruptcy of this political strategy has a practical effect on their citizen mortality. >> what's interesting is, states, as you know, alex, are fairly insulated. and governor desantis has surrounded himself with individuals like dr. ladapo. -- i use that honorific very lightly here. who essentially kowtows and puts of policy position that he knows the governor is going to agree with -- and the governor, i will say this -- the best analogy here is, what happens when the florida health system over the past two years -- what has happened when it's gone under stress? governor desantis has invoked the national guard because he is, ultimately, the commander of the national guard and can leverage that capability to his liking to support health

systems as needed. and that tells you something. he has done it repeatedly. and when you have that ability to pull that lever at your will, when you are only listening to physicians and the medical establishment that thinks yourself, that is only giving you one side of the story, it's not giving you a holistic scientific view -- well, morals then doesn't even come into it. because that's the only reality that you know. i just wonder if there is not an echo effect here too. you don't have to be living in the state of florida for this to affect you. i would imagine and please -- correct me if i'm wrong -- that from a public health perspective, just the mere existence of these criticisms, levied by a man who may well be the republican nominee for president in 2024 -- just the fact that he is out there giving air to anti-vax conspiracy theories and starting something called a public health integrity committee to look into covid-19 vaccines has a ripple effect, right? just does the mere existence of that sort of public skepticism

as voiced by someone with someone with such a big megaphone, does that have such a broader public health effect? >> yes, and the surgeon general. if there is someone in this room who should know better, it's the surgeon general. what he has done here is he has conducted a study that he has posted on the internet. there has been no peer review, alex. and this has created, essentially, the underpinnings for this committee that they launched today -- it's this one study that was poorly conducted. it's not scientific. but it's looking at these side effects. let's talk about it. let's look at the side effects. myocarditis, inflammation of the heart. that is a rare side effect from the mrna vaccines, particularly amongst young men. somehow, governor desantis and the surgeon general think that something nefarious has gone on, that the cdc has not leveled with people, that this is a very rare side effect. it is self limiting, it's non fatal, and goes away on its own. and that is what multiple other

studies, alex -- for all your viewers out there and if governor desantis, if he is listening -- that is what multiple peer reviewed studies that have been scientifically done have shown, that this is a mild side effect at worst. and it's very rare. and oh, by the way, infection with the coronavirus can cause a more severe manifestation of myocarditis. they are only talking -- they are cherry-picking data -- they are doing bad science. and they're putting it on the internet. they're not even going through peer review. but to your point, to your very good point, by doing just that, they are telling some people out there what they want to hear. they are creating a megaphone effect around that very flawed set of data. >> if you are a scientist, to do this to a population, it's so shameful, for political ends. >> dr. vin gupta critical care pulmonologist and faculty member at the university of washington's institute for health metrics and evaluation. dr. gupta, thanks for helping us understand what's going on here tonight. we appreciate it. >> --

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civil rights leader john lewis, who died in 2020, received many accolades in honor of his six decades of getting into what he called good trouble for justice and racial equity. president barack obama presented him with the medal of freedom, which is the highest honor awarded to civilians. the city of atlanta, where he lived and served in local government before going into congress, it honored him by renaming a city street the john lewis freedom parkway. congressman lewis even has a navy ship named after him, an oiler called the usns john lewis. the ship delivers fuel and provisions to combat ships, which allows them to remain at sea. it is also the first of its class, meaning that all shapes of this design will be of the john lewis class, which is awesome. troy university, the school in

lewis's hometown that denied his admission in 1957, that university is now named an academic building after him. a brick and mortar honor for the boy from troy. and today, we got a preview of yet another tribute in the works for congressman john lewis. next year, the u.s. postal service will release a stamp featuring his picture and his name in honor of his more than 30 years in congress and his commitment to civil rights. and unlike a ship or a building or a street, you can hold this tribute in your hands. that does it for us tonight to see you again tomorrow. now it is time for the last word with lawrence o'donnell. good evening, lawrence. >> alex, i will be ordering those stamps as soon as they are available. >> i am ordering sheets of them. everyone gets one for christmas. >> thanks, alex. >> thanks, lawrence. >> thank you. special prosecutor jack smith has -- revealed that he is expanding the justice's criminal investigation of donald trump beyond donald trump's possession of government dome